Eugene Leitl wrote:
On Mon, 1 Oct 2001, Harmon Seaver wrote:
Not true at all. Biodiesel is being marketed in the US today at competitive prices, and obviously, like anything else, economies of scale would bring down that price. Ethanol is another one. Brazil run
Biodiesel and bioethanol are horribly inefficient as far as conversion of solar energy and agricultural area is concerned. Large scale agriculture is not exactly environmentally neutral. They're extreme niche or gimmick fuels at best.
Where do you get that from? Are you saying that farmers aren't growing canola oil at a profit? Farmers are also growing corn and that corn is turned into ethanol at a profit. http://journeytoforever.org/ethanol.html
Ethanol is a highly efficient fuel. A study by the Institute of Local Self-Reliance in the US found that using the best farming and production methods, "the amount of energy contained in a gallon of ethanol is more than twice the energy used to grow the corn and convert it to ethanol".
The US Department of Agriculture says each BTU (British Thermal Unit, an energy measure) used to produce a BTU of gasoline could be used to produce 8 BTUs of ethanol.
The non-profit American Coalition for Ethanol says ethanol production is "extremely energy efficient", with a positive energy balance of 125%, compared to 85% for gasoline, making ethanol production "by far the most efficient method of producing liquid transportation fuels".
If you are refering to the paper done by Pimental, that study was seriously flawed (so much so that one might think it was paid for by big oil) and thoroughly debunked. See: http://journeytoforever.org/ethanol_energy.html -- Harmon Seaver, MLIS CyberShamanix Work 920-203-9633 Home 920-233-5820 hseaver@cybershamanix.com http://www.cybershamanix.com/resume.html